Some parishes will have to function at times without a resident priest under a new pastoral plan for the Diocese of Killaloe published yesterday.
The plan proposes developing parish regional leadership teams which would provide practical co-operation between parishes where one or more might be without a priest. The plan, launched at the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Ennis, also proposes "team ministry" in the diocese, where a group of priests take joint responsibility for the pastoral care of a group of parishes.
The Bishop of Killaloe, Most Rev Willie Walsh, said the plan was much more than a series of practical responses by a diocese in which the majority of parishes now have just one priest with no student preparing for the priesthood.
He described the plan as a new model of Church in which priests and laity worked together in a collaborative way.
"The model of Church in which bishop and priests were seen as managers and decision-makers, and the people as those who obeyed instructions, is well and truly outdated," he said.
Father Harry Bohan, director of pastoral planning in Killaloe, said the plan acknowledged the erosion of the power of priests in recent years and suggested that this reality is an invitation to move away from authority leadership towards servant leadership.
